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Catherine and Jean-Denis

We are an urban French Canadian couple, living in an old apartment, in a nice neighborhood of Québec city center. Jean-Denis is a senior advisor for enterprise strategy and Catherine, an IT consultant. We live within walking distance of everything, including work. We recently decided to share one car and sold the second one we had. Though we already made a few changes in our lifestyle, we believe the 360º Energy Diet will encourage us to take further actions!

Badges

Canada Participants

Your Points Percentile:

100th

Total Country Participants:

75

At Home(58%)

Changed thermostat

Changed settings on refrigerator, freezer, water heater and washer

Replaced at least one third of light bulbs with CFLs or LEDs

Disconnected electronic devices when not in use

Wild Card Items

Eliminated second freezer or refrigerator

Insulated water heater

Replaced appliances with green-certified products

Hung clothes up to dry instead of using the dryer

Sealed all of the windows and doors

Food(90%)

Ate a vegetarian diet one day a week

Cut down on take-away meals

Limited daily intake of beef to 8 ounces

Switched to sustainable seafood

Wild Card Items

Started a food-based garden

Ate vegan or raw for a certain number of days per week

Bought grass-fed beef instead of conventional

Gave up at least one processed food

My own action: Give up red tuna

Transportation(85%)

Drove no faster than the posted the speed limit, avoided rapid acceleration or braking

This week, Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol. A shame for a country like Canada, once seen as innovative and socially responsible. A shame considering our politicians used an old and false paradigm for their propaganda: reducing greenhouse gas emissions weakens the economy. One minister even said we would have to get rid of every…

The 360° Energy Diet has compelled us to ponder our impact on the earth and increase our efforts to reduce it. Although the actions are personal above all, we shall not ignore effects we can have on our entourage. Undoubtedly, we can’t dissociate our environmental impacts from those businesses where we get our food, clothes and…

When I first met Jean-Denis, apart from his business suit, he owned 5 t-shirts, 2 jeans and 2 sweaters. I won’t tell you what I owned then, but I can tell you it’s even more unreasonable now. Jean-Denis’ wardrobe hasn’t changed since. He owns different t-shirts now, but he doesn’t have more of them. As…

The other day, as we were planning our travel to Saguenay, we signed up for a car-poll and ride-sharing website. Unfortunately, no one accepted. How can we reduce our carbon footprint – with a solution that would allow us to live our passions like skiing and scuba diving? When public transport is available, we use…

As the first snow was falling over Quebec this weekend, Jean-Denis and I decided to happily share with you some of the progress we have made over the last month, while carefully preparing for winter. As you read last week in our going beyond food miles entry, carbon footprint reduction by buying local is not…

During recent years, buying local and its ecological benefits has been on the news a lot, as an opportunity to reduce carbon footprints. Jean-Denis (thanks to his strong ability to question media) slowly noticed that reducing carbon footprints by buying local is much more complex than anticipated… How can we know the real energy consumption for…

To begin with, I have to mention that more than 95 percent of electricity production in our province comes from hydroelectricity. Hydro-Québec, the state-owned utility, controls the electricity supply. Historically, prices have been low, and major energy consumption in houses comes from electricity use. Natural gas and petrol are sometimes used for cooking or heating,…

We are really thrilled to start the 360° Energy Diet today. Jean-Denis and I will both be posting about our personal experience with the Diet. We are native French speakers, established in beautiful Québec City, Canada. Last January, we moved in together into a 1,200 square-foot apartment, in one of the oldest neighborhood of the…

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About the 360º Energy Diet

Households around the world have gone on a life-changing mission to lower their carbon footprints. Our bloggers shared their experiences as they made lifestyle changes both large and small. You can join too: Register at the link above and track your results.

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Your Energy Diet Calendar

Starting a diet can be daunting. Will you feel deprived? Can you stick to all the changes you make? If the whole 360º Energy Diet seems daunting to you, try taking things month-by-month with this calendar.